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Joyce, Pre‐ Raphaelism, Art Nouveau: Pictorial Influences on Finnegans Wake
Author(s) -
Gandelman Claude
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
orbis litterarum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.109
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1600-0730
pISSN - 0105-7510
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0730.1975.tb00703.x
Subject(s) - literature , relation (database) , theme (computing) , imitation , section (typography) , sentence , painting , wake , art , philosophy , similarity (geometry) , character (mathematics) , art history , linguistics , psychology , physics , mathematics , computer science , geometry , social psychology , database , artificial intelligence , image (mathematics) , thermodynamics , operating system
The article sets out to explore the thematic and stylistic relation‐ship between Joyce's last work, Finnegans Wake , and the artistic currents of his youth. In particular, the similarity between the archetypal “river‐woman” figure (Anna Livia Plurabelle) and the theme of “woman as a river” in the imagery of Art Nouveau and Pre‐Raphaelism, is analyzed in detail. Another section deals with the influence of Blake as a painter (his influence on Joyce as a writer haslong been noted) and a predecessor of Art Nouveau.On the plane of stylistics proper, the question is raised whether the “spiraling” sentence structure (insofar as one can speak of “sentence” in Finnegans Wake ) should not be considered the lin‐ guistic equivalent of the “linea serpentinata” of Mannerism thathas come down to Joyce through Pre‐Raphaelism and Art Nouveau. In the light of this hypothesis, the conclusive remarks suggest that the famous theory of the influence ofG.‐B. Vico on Joyce ought to be reexamined, the cycles of Finnegans Wake might equally as well be an imitation of the cyclical birth and r e birth of Water through magnification of the “linea serpentinata.”